• To Be Like the Postal Carrier

    138328_GrabBagNormalWorking from home reveals all the daily routines that happen around your house while you’re typically away.

    • 3 different garbage trucks come on Friday. (Garbage, recycling, yard waste. Though the later two come on a secret schedule which lives on our refrigerator.)
    • An elderly woman picks through everyone’s recycling to get cans and bottles.
    • Our neighbors gardener comes on Wednesday.
    • UPS comes in the morning and the evening.
    • FedEx comes in the afternoon.
    • Amazon.com has their own delivery service, that comes in the afternoon.
    • Once a week the Schwan truck comes.
    • One neighbor gets daily food delivery and another has a daily home healthcare visit.
    • Once a month a volunteer drops off the neighborhood newsletter.
    • Each Thursday afternoon a guy drives by and tosses the Penny Saver onto our driveway, which is conveniently timed with garbage day.
    • Utility workers read meters and check connections and all sorts of things.
    • At some point each week a utility worker climbs the power pole. Or checks it. Or parks in front of it to eat a snack.
    • Speaking of snacks, it’s normal for contractors or cops or other workers to park in front of our house to eat a snack. Our house must make people hungry. (Or a good place to hide from your supervisor.)

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  • You’re blowing it, dad

    Friday at 2:00 PM I sent my last work off and hell week ended. I don’t mean, the week from hell, I mean it was a week where a lot had to get done and the brunt of the burden rested on my shoulders. There was no other choice: To meet the commitments to authors and client projects– we had to push through.

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  • I don’t know what to think about Syria

    I don’t care much about the politics of United States involvement in Syria. If anything, I’m glad there’s a call for debate among the people we’ve elected to represent us. I’ve got a weird trusting distrust in that process that I think a lot of American’s have. I believe that one way to keep our democracy working is by continually forcing it to work.

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  • Why I’m Investing in Frontline Innovation

    In the past few weeks I’ve invested a ton of my energy in Open.

    Open is a series of open-source-styled youth ministry training events that I dreamt about for nearly 2 years and was finally able to launch last Fall. When we launched it we quickly learned that it wasn’t just a dream I had… but a dream of a lot of people. Consequently, it’s grown way faster than I’d planned on.

    Here’s a short description from the manifesto:

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  • Pro Tips for Leading Small Groups

    Pro Tips for Leading Small Groups

    So, you’re leading a small group this school year in the youth ministry? That’s so cool. Whether it’s your first season or your 35th thanks for investing in the lives of teenagers. It might not seem like it every week, but it makes a huge difference.

    So… I’m a small group leader. How do I actually do that?

    Here are a few of my favorite tips for small group leaders.

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  • You aren’t a leader and that’s OK

    leadersdemotivator

    There’s a lot of leadership language flying around church circles these days.

    I’m at the point where I find the irony too much to bear.

    My definition of a leader is, “Someone who takes you where you otherwise wouldn’t go alone.”

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  • The Anxiety of Teenagers

    I loved Rhett’s talk at The Summit last fall. He and his book struck such a chord with me personally and I heard lots of feedback from people in attendance who felt the same way.

    When I think about anxiety and other issues that we’re hearing more and more about in regards to teenagers I’m wondering: Is it that these things always existed and we’re just now better understanding them? Or is it that something has changed within us as a society which is making us more anxious, depressed, and attention deficient?

    And the conspiracy theorist is me wonders: Are we simply aware of it because there’s a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry that profits when they educate people that they might have something for which they conveniently have a $40 per dose pill to treat?

    Probably a little of each, eh?

  • Team Hustle

    do-the-hustle

    Can I share a little secret about being an entrepreneur?

    • You don’t have to have the best idea.
    • You don’t have to have the best team.
    • You don’t have to spend the most money.
    • You don’t even have to be the most popular.

    So what are my keys to making it? I’m 3-0 in start-ups, batting 1.00 lifetime in a role most people fail.

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  • What Teenagers are Watching on YouTube Right Now

    YouTube Trend Map

    YouTube is the #3 website in the world behind Google and Facebook. A YouTube visitor is likely to visit 14 different videos each day and watch 24 minutes.

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  • Why You Should Delete SnapChat

    Why You Should Delete SnapChat

    I’ve been engaged in various forms of social media since AOL chat rooms in 1994. And I’ve never seen a more dangerous application targeting teenagers, specifically girls, than SnapChat.

    The premise of SnapChat is simple. You take a picture, send it to a friend, and they can only see it for up to 10 seconds before it’s deleted.

    And that’s where the lie begins.

    I want to be blunt. My goal for this post is to motivate you to delete SnapChat from your phone.

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